Sail Training

Last Saturday's intended 'taster' session to whet the appetite was 'over-salted' by spray and high winds, so those attending were provided with films on the big screen in the clubhouse instead. One of the lessons of the sport of sailing is that one has to respect the weather and conditions, so those interested should not be deterred. Keep in touch with Tina (tel. 812383) and join the sailing when conditions are more suitable.

Sunday Racing

Whilst sail training was blown out on Saturday, sail training graduates were extremely well represented in the racing on the Sunday, making up two thirds of the fleet. It was great to see Toppers outnumbering all other classes. This was very pleasing - do keep it up! The Girls on Top - Tonia and Julia - were in charge and set a Pendine, Monkstone, Harbour course which gave a really great beat on the last leg for the first lap. Unfortunately, the wind eased for the second lap so it was not quite so stimulating.

For the first time this season, the Bower Phantom failed to haunt the fleet from the front and the new Topper Magno sporting two sails, helmed by Chris Bannister and with Will Horton crewing, took the honours. Paul Johnson kept his Solo in strong contention, but was overcome on handicap adjustment into second place with Peter Bower finishing third.

This week's Come Dancing entry was provided by Sarah Borman who took a fancy to the inner distance mark and gave it considerable attention from many positions before making a move on the harbour mark which she rounded successfully to complete the race.

Coppet Week

Coppet Week is in a little over three weeks so if you have not yet got round to the application forms - dig them out and return them now. We are still in need of extra volunteers to help with this event which runs from Sunday to Friday, May 24-29. If you could lend a hand sometime during that period, please contact Tina on 812383 or Graham on 07890 987825.

The Scaffold

The clubhouse is now revealed in all its newly decorated glory and the space left by the scaffolding will allow all the cruisers to be trundled back into the water. Last minute winter maintenance and repairs have been hotting up in recent weeks so we trust that everything is now bolted, screwed, stitched, glued, varnished and painted ready to go. Hopefully the weather will encourage more voyages this season than were possible last year.

If any skippers would like any extra crew, there is interest from club members to crew. Either make contact via the noticeboard, or the website http://www.saundersfootsailingclub.org.uk">www.saundersfootsailingclub.org.uk or by word of mouth to committee members.

Club Opening

The club's bar is open every Friday night from 7 pm and every Sunday lunchtime from noon and good value food continues to be on offer from Graham's kitchen.

 

Nautical Nips

Non-sailors watching the racing from Saundersfoot may well wonder how boats of such obvious different speeds and visual design can compete against each other.

The answer is in a very well established handicap system produced by the Royal Yacht Association (RYA) using an enormous amount of information from sailing clubs all around the country.

Each class of boat has a number between 700 and 1,700 and the time taken to complete a lap of the course (or an average lap time if several laps are sailed) is then divided by the handicap number and multiplied by 1,000. The fastest lap time wins.

This may be more information than you want, but in any event we hope that you enjoy the spectacle of a fleet of boats of different designs, sizes and colours racing across the bay.

Last Week's Poser

Most dinghy sailor readers will be familiar with the Preparatory '4 minute' flag that we use in the starting procedure for most SSC races - which is the 'P' flag - a white rectangle with blue border.

The yellow and black 'I' flag which was used as the Preparatory flag in last week's poser, is not so well-known and means that those of you who skipped back straight over the line were disqualified, as this flag requires anyone over the line to return 'around the ends' of the start line.

However, if some diverting event had occurred before the final start signal - such as the OOD dropping the stopwatch or one of the flag halyards becoming totally knotted - those of you who were on the wrong side of the line might have been let off, but what signals would you have seen and heard from the starters box?

Skipper's Mate